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Fencer Vulns
high 7.4

CVE-2019-8320 json

RubyGems Delete directory using symlink when decompressing tar

published 2019-06-06 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-5x32-c9mf-49cc , EUVD-2019-0506

cvss
7.4
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
4.2%
EPSS 4.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 91%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A Directory Traversal issue was discovered in RubyGems 2.7.6 and later through 3.0.2. Before making new directories or touching files (which now include path-checking code for symlinks), it would delete the target destination. If that destination was hidden behind a symlink, a malicious gem could delete arbitrary files on the user's machine, presuming the attacker could guess at paths. Given how frequently gem is run as sudo, and how predictable paths are on modern systems (/tmp, /usr, etc.), this could likely lead to data loss or an unusable system.

Patch / fix

  • rubygems rubygems-update 2.7.9, 3.0.3
  • jruby Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 9.1.17.0-3
  • rubygems Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.2.0~rc.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-8320

  • ruby2.0 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.0.0.484-1ubuntu2.13
  • ruby2.3 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.3.1-2~16.04.12
  • ruby2.5 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.5.1-1ubuntu1.2
  • ruby1.9.1 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1.9.3.484-2ubuntu1.14

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-8320

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • rh-ruby24-ruby RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.6-92.el6
  • rh-ruby24-ruby RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.6-92.el7
  • rh-ruby24-ruby-irb RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.6-92.el6
  • rh-ruby24-ruby-irb RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.6-92.el7
  • rh-ruby24-rubygems RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.6.14.4-92.el6
  • rh-ruby24-rubygems RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.6.14.4-92.el7
  • rh-ruby24-ruby-libs RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.6-92.el6
  • rh-ruby24-ruby-libs RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.6-92.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:1150RHSA-2019:1148RHSA-2019:1429RHBA-2019:3384

  • ruby2.1 SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +14 more 2.1.9-19.3.2
  • yast2-ruby-bindings SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +1 more 3.1.53-9.8.1
  • ruby2.5 SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 2.5.5-4.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:1570-1SUSE-SU-2019:1804-1

  • ruby2.5 openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 2.5.5-lp151.4.3.1
  • ruby-bundled-gems-rpmhelper openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 0.0.2-lp151.2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:1771-1

  • rubygem-pg AlmaLinux 8 1.0.0-2.module_el8.5.0+2625+ec418553
  • rubygem-pg AlmaLinux 8 1.0.0-2.module_el8.5.0+259+8cec6917
  • rubygem-abrt AlmaLinux 8 0.3.0-4.module_el8.5.0+2625+ec418553
  • rubygem-abrt AlmaLinux 8 0.3.0-4.module_el8.5.0+259+8cec6917
  • rubygem-abrt AlmaLinux 8 0.3.0-4.module_el8.5.0+2623+08a8ba32
  • rubygem-bson AlmaLinux 8 4.3.0-2.module_el8.5.0+2625+ec418553
  • rubygem-bson AlmaLinux 8 4.3.0-2.module_el8.5.0+259+8cec6917
  • rubygem-mongo AlmaLinux 8 2.5.1-2.module_el8.5.0+259+8cec6917

almalinux advisories ALBA-2019:3384

  • ruby Alpine 3.7, Alpine 3.6 2.4.6-r0
  • ruby Alpine 3.9, Alpine 3.8 2.5.5-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-8320

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2019-8320 updated cvss 7.4

rubygems: Delete directory using symlink when decompressing tar

  • Red Hat Software Collections rh-ruby23-ruby, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb, rh-ruby23-rubygems, rh-ruby23-ruby-libs, rh-ruby23-ruby-tcltk, rh-ruby23-rubygem-json, +10 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat CloudForms Management Engine 5.10 ruby 2.4.6-91.el7cf, cfme 5.10.5.1-1.el7cf, ruby-irb 2.4.6-91.el7cf, ruby-libs 2.4.6-91.el7cf, rubygems 2.6.14.4-91.el7cf, rubygem-rdoc 5.0.0-91.el7cf, +16 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1429
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) ruby 2.5.5-105.module+el8.1.0+3656+f80bfa1d, ruby-irb 2.5.5-105.module+el8.1.0+3656+f80bfa1d, rubygem-pg 1.0.0-2.module+el8.1.0+3656+f80bfa1d, ruby-libs 2.5.5-105.module+el8.1.0+3656+f80bfa1d, rubygem-abrt 0.3.0-4.module+el8.1.0+3656+f80bfa1d, rubygem-bson 4.3.0-2.module+el8.1.0+3656+f80bfa1d, +17 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHBA-2019:3384
  • Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.6-92.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.6-92.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby-libs 2.4.6-92.el6, rh-ruby24-rubygems 2.6.14.4-92.el6, rh-ruby24-rubygem-json 2.0.4-92.el6, rh-ruby24-rubygem-rdoc 5.0.0-92.el6, +11 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) rh-ruby25-ruby 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-irb 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-libs 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-libs 2.4.6-92.el7, +28 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.4) rh-ruby25-ruby 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-irb 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-libs 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-libs 2.4.6-92.el7, +28 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.5) rh-ruby25-ruby 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-irb 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-libs 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-libs 2.4.6-92.el7, +28 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.6) rh-ruby25-ruby 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-irb 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-libs 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-libs 2.4.6-92.el7, +28 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.6-92.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.6-92.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby-libs 2.4.6-92.el6, rh-ruby24-rubygems 2.6.14.4-92.el6, rh-ruby24-rubygem-json 2.0.4-92.el6, rh-ruby24-rubygem-rdoc 5.0.0-92.el6, +11 more
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) rh-ruby25-ruby 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-irb 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.6-92.el7, rh-ruby25-ruby-libs 2.5.5-7.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-libs 2.4.6-92.el7, +28 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1150
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 rubygems Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ruby, ruby-irb, rubygems, ruby-libs, ruby-tcltk, rubygem-json, +6 more Red Hat Software Collections rh-ruby26-ruby, rh-ruby26-rubygems, rh-ruby26-ruby-libs, rh-ruby26-rubygem-irb, rh-ruby26-rubygem-json, rh-ruby26-rubygem-rake, +12 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

4.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • hackerone.com https://hackerone.com/reports/317321 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.4 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 8.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:C
GitHub 3.0 7.4 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
rubygems rubygems-update
>=2.7.6, <2.7.9
>=3.0.0, <3.0.3
2.7.9
3.0.3

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.